Thursday, March 3, 2016

My Good Experience in U.S. Nonimmigrant Visa Application (Malaysia)

I have successfully received my 10 years U.S. nonimmigrant visa this evening! Throughout the visa application process, I consider myself as the lucky one. We did not face any difficulty or hindrance, from the online application to payment and interview. Below were the simple steps I took before securing this visa. 
1) First of all, ensure the type of visa you are applying for is correct, based on your purpose of visiting the United States. For my case, it is B2.
2) You need Internet access to fill in your personal information online, and of course a dekstop pc/laptop/tablet/ipad/smartphone. Proceed to this website and complete the DS-160 form.
https://ceac.state.gov/genniv/

Please read the details and ensure all the information filled in are correct and true. During the interview, the officer might verify certain information with you based on what you have submitted.
3) Make visa payment~ I have chosen to make the payment online using JomPay via maybank2u. The steps are so simple and direct, just make sure the deposit slip you use are valid, and you selected the correct type of visa. The consular exchange rate for usd dropped from 4.4 to 4.2 one day before I decided to make the payment, and this helps me to save rm32!! :) For details, kindly proceed to:
http://www.ustraveldocs.com/my/my-niv-paymentinfo.asp
4) After the payment is done, you can start to schedule your interview appointment. Proceed to create an account here and fill in the particulars needed.



If you are going to apply visa  and travel with your family member, you can choose to have the interview together. For my case, I have selected to attend the interview with my sister, thus I just need to fill in certain information for 1 time only, as it will be the same for both of us. I think they are very considerate for this matter, and it actually helps to save time for both sides. 

5) Attend my appointment as scheduled! The U.S.embassy situated in Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur. It is just beside Plaza See Hoy Chan. For those who drive there, you may park at the visitor parking of the plaza. Again, we are very lucky as my sister's office is located besides that plaza, so we just parked our car at Micasa All Suites Hotel and walked over (she gets seasonal parking foc subsidised  by the company). We have opted the second session 745am, as we worried we couldn't reach on time. In fact we reached at 705am,  and the queue was already very long. There were easily 30 people in the line. A guard outside the embassy gate will call out for the appointment time. This means that even if you reach early, you won't be able to join the actual queue unless your appointment time has reached. I will say choose the earlier session the better. Get ready with all the documents needed in hands to shorten the time at the embassy gate.

6) We then went through all the screenings,  from security check to scanning of thumbprint. Finally we were given a number and waited for our turn in a waiting area. After approximately 45 minutes of waiting, we were interviewed by a handsome officer. He asked us some questions about our purpose of travelling, who is paying for the trip, how long will we be staying in the states, what are our jobs etc. As we stated that we are attending my cousin graduation ceremony, the officer did confirm with us my cousin's name, her graduation place, whether she is a permanent resident / citizen etc. The officer was really nice and I heard he spoke simple mandarin to a few Chinese uncles whom can't speak English well. After around 5 minutes of interviewing, the officer smiled at us and said: ok, your visas are approved. (Yeahhh)

7) Wait for my passport and visa~ we have opted for courrier service  (no additional charge) instead of self collection, so we just have to make sure someone can sign and receive for us. Guess what, we waited for 1.5 days to get back the passports with 10 years visa imprinted, weeeee. (Interviewed on Tuesday morning, received the passports on Thursday after lunch, so efficient!)

My 10 years multiple entries visa to the United States of America, yiiipeee

Above is just my simple sharing of experience. For details on document needed to bring during interview,please refer to the 'Appointment Confirmation' page once you have successfully fixed the appointment. We did bring many supporting documents to support but were not asked to show. This is case to case basis, so I will still suggest to prepare the documents deem necessary. 

Do note that from the moment we entered the embassy gate until we completed the interview, I could be with my sister all the time as we have declared as travel companion in the online submission and scheduled appointment together. This is really convenient especially for old people or young teenagers who usually need to be accompanied. Overall my experience  in U. S. Visa application in Malaysia is really good and I do hope everyone has the same smooth application as we did. 


22 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi, I am planning to apply for tourist visa together with my daughter who will be applying for student visa. Is it correct that we need to declare on our individual DS 160 that we are travelling together and submit individual DS160? How to schedule appointment as a family?

Unknown said...

Hi, I am planning to apply for tourist visa together with my daughter who will be applying for student visa. Is it correct that we need to declare on our individual DS 160 that we are travelling together and submit individual DS160? How to schedule appointment as a family?

mei ling said...

Hi Mindy,

I am Mei Ling, also a pharmacist working in Penang. I posted the above post. I hope you can help me shed the light on the steps for scheduling a US family interview as you have just done it recently. I couldn't find any guide on line. I only knew that each family member has to submit her own DS160 and visa fees have to be paid individually. After that , do only 1 family member set up an account online and schedule appointment for all family members at the same time ? What is required to be filled up when scheduling the same appointment for all family members ? Please help. Thanks

Mindy said...

Dear mei ling,so sorry for the late reply. Something happened in my family and I didnt check my blog for some time. I think you must have obtained your visa by now. Sorry...

Australian Visa said...

Sometime it takes lot of times on visa approval, having no knowledge of visa process make it more difficult. So I always encourage people who keep sharing their experience on visa process. Thanks for sharing your great opinion which relate to visa process.

Mindy said...

You are most welcome :)

Anonymous said...

Hi, I need advice. I would like to travel to US with my mom who can be my 'travel companion'. She does not speak English, only Mandarin. How can she attend to interview in this case?

Unknown said...

Hi,
Would like to seek help on e US visa application form fill up for B1/B2 visa types, is there any guideline / experience sharing available?
Thanks ... :)

Unknown said...

Hi Mindy,
Do you mind to share if you bring along any company supporting letter?
Did you state about you on holiday (free and easy) or authorised vacation?

nancy john said...

In this changing world I don’t think that immigration laws will more easy then ever


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Mindy said...

Sorry for the late reply. You can specify your mum as your travel companion during the online application form. During the interview, the interviewer will allow both of your to be interviewed together.

Mindy said...

Hi WL, the full guidance is available on the website. Feel free to ask me if you need further details.

Mindy said...

So sorry for the late reply. You should bring along your company appointment letter or pay slip, although the interviewer did not request to see mine. I did show my travel itinerary and the interviewer asked me to describe more on my purpose of travel. Enjoy your trip and have fun!

Subarna Akter said...


Excellent article Thank you for posting.

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Unknown said...

Thank you for sharing such great information.
It has help me in finding out more detail about "Malaysia Visa"

Unknown said...

Hi. I am applying for tbe B2 vusa n will be attending the interview tomorrow. I read frm yr blog that we may need to wait n queue about 45 minutes for our turn (correct me if I m wrong), . My problem is I m 60 yrs old n hv problem wth my knee to stand so long. I have a walking stick cum seat. Cn i bring it along as I may need it while quieing? Where can i keep it for safety when i enter for intervew?

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Marco said...

Lately I was wondering about this thing, but because of your wondrous knowledge! It gives me peace of mind, Thanks a lot! I wonder if you have already Fiancee visa, I suggest you must have one!

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Rohan Mishra said...

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